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5. Conclusions: One application possibility – Preparing intercultural encounters.
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5. Conclusions: One application possibility – Preparing intercultural encounters.


How to avoid as far as possible or overcome possible obstacles of in­tercultural communication through axiological lacunas and lacunas in general? As trainer of intercultural trainings for children this is a funda­mental question I have to deal with in my trainings. In chapter 3.2 I listed several application possibilities of the lacuna model and on one of them we will have a closer look in this final chapter: preparing intercultural en­counters. Astrid Ertelt-Vieth’s [2003: 15ff.] approach struck me by its sim­plicity and its effectiveness: to be able to provide handy formulas easy to comprehend and easy to remember during the period abroad which addi­tionally aim at being useful in draw­ing conclusions afterwards and in analysis of possible concrete conflicts Ertelt-Vieth [2003: 16] proposes a checklist divided into a ‘structural aid towards cultural knowledge’ and ‘normative goals’. The ‘structural aid towards cultural knowledge’ is called ‘From existing knowledge to new ex­perience in six steps’:

Remember: In (e.g.) Russia and elsewhere
  1. many things are like they are here,
  2. many things are like they are in many other countries

- only in Germany they are dif­ferent,
  1. many things are different in­deed,
  2. many things might have differ­ent relations and different mean­ings,
  3. no two persons are alike (and yet many may be similar in many respects),
  4. hardly anything will remain the same.

The ‘structural aid towards cultural knowledge’ covers in simple words the principles of lacuna analysis, such as perspective or axiological lacunas, individual differences etc. Starting out with similarities it leads towards dis­covery and comprehension of differ­ences. Its use can promote 1) expres­sion, exchange and differentiation of an existing inventory of knowledge, 2) larger “cultural attentiveness”, 3) better targeted questioning and 4) better ac­tion and more adequate reaction [Ertelt-Vieth 2003: 15ff.].

The second part of the checklist ‘normative goals’ indicates how to react to the through part one detected cultural peculiarities. Ertelt-Vieth [2003: 18] proposes as principles for intercultural encounters of any of the in the ‘structural aid towards cultural knowledge’ mentioned headings that you should:
  1. try and gain much experience in common and in differing and in un­usual situations and even in misunder­standings,
  2. often put yourself into the other person’s shoes in trying to understand them,
  3. explain your customs and perspec­tives to the others,
  4. in any unfamiliar situation look for the things that are in common, com­promise but criticize only if neces­sary, and never in an offending way, make your own points clear but al­ways stay open for further communi­cation,
  5. reflect what you would want to change for yourself or what you want to keep – just for your time abroad or permanently at home,
  6. remember that understanding rises in spirals: you frequently arrive at simi­lar points, feel like you are starting anew, and yet move on.

To me Ertelt-Vieth’s approach is a very promising approach in pre­paring persons for a foreign culture. I very much appreciate that human be­ings are seen as active, reflective and self-reflective [Ertelt-Vieth 2003: 19] and in my point of view therefore have both, the responsibility to con­tribute to a successful intercultural communication on whatever basic or sophisticated level it takes place and through the lacuna model and the model of ‘negotiating of meaning’ the tools to constructively interact with members of other cultures. I often ex­perience when talking to people about their intercultural experiences or ob­serving them in intercultural encoun­ters that many people are not aware of their responsibility in contributing to a successful intercultural (and even in­tracultural) communication by being ‘active, reflective and self-reflective’ according to Ertelt-Vieth`s ‘normative goals’. Additionally, many people be­lieve they do not have the tools to constructively interact with members of other cultures. With the lacuna model the five criterias of Smith`s ‘negoating of meaning’ can be filled with knowledge and as shown the ‘negotiating of meaning’ is a solid preparation tool for intercultural en­counters – thus the lacuna model and the ‘negotiating of meaning’ model can be seen as a tool combination to constructively interact with foreign cultures based on Ertelt-Vieth`s as­sumption of human beings as being ‘active, reflective and self-reflective’.

The lacuna model is in my opinion a major important contribu­tion (7) to the field of intercultral communication: not only that it pro­vides ‘handy formulas easy to com­prehend and easy to remember during the period abroad’ which is relevant for the intercultural training sector but the handy formulas are based on a solid scientific method to which dif­ferent cultures have contributed and which can therefore claim more than other so called “intercultral” theories to be in­tercultural. Still, drawing its origins from linguistics and psychology I be­lieve not only the application of the lacuna model in areas paid attention to like international advertising [research by Grodski 2003] and a ‘translation’ into a less linguistic vocabulary - as already down by Ertelt-Vieth and pre­sented in this paper – are very impor­tant but a less linguistic and scientific language in explaining the different categories of lacunas will help to spread its popularity.